Turtles Candy

I absolutely adore the combination of chocolate, caramel, and nuts. I have a recipe for Chocolate Pecan Caramels that I simply love, and I don’t know why I have never tried making turtles before. Guys, this Turtles Candy is simply amazing! Better than any turtle candies I have ever purchased. The crunchy pecans, the chewy caramel, the chocolate that melts in your mouth. Simply incredible.

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Don’t be intimidated about the candy making process, these turtles are really quite simple to make. You want to start by toasting your pecans. It makes a huge difference in the flavor of the finished product, so don’t skip this step. Just place your pecans on a cookie sheet and bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. They will smell amazing!

Before you start making your caramel, you want to arrange your pecans into little clusters. I line my pans with silicone liners, but parchment paper would work too. I like to use 3-4 pecans, depending on size.

As soon as your caramel is ready, quickly spoon the hot caramel on top of the clusters, making sure each pecan is covered with some caramel. Don’t worry about perfection, just work fast. If the caramel starts to set up, you can pop it back on the stove for a minute or two.

At this point, you can let the caramel set up and add the chocolate later. Or you can add it now. When you are ready, just melt the chocolate and oil in a small glass bowl in the microwave at half power, stirring often. Then spoon a small amount of chocolate on top of each turtle. Use the back of your spoon to make a little swirl in the chocolate as you lift it.

Now all you have to do is wait for the chocolate to set up. Be patient, it can take awhile. Mine weren’t totally set up for a couple of hours. Of course, you don’t have to wait that long to eat one! 🙂

Continue cooking and stirring till mixture reaches 235-240 degrees. I like to use the ice water test, it's more accurate. Drop a small spoonful of the hot caramel into a bowl of ice water. When you take it out, you should be able to roll it into a ball. Then it's done.

Quickly spoon the caramel over the pecan clusters, making sure caramel is touching each of the pecans. Let sit to harden.

Melt the chocolate chips and oil in the microwave at half power, stirring often till smooth. Spoon chocolate on top of each layer of caramel. Let sit for 1-2 hours, or till hardened.

Nutrition Facts

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Turtles Recipe

Amount Per Serving

Calories 6200Calories from Fat 3492

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 388g597%

Saturated Fat 128g640%

Cholesterol 352mg117%

Sodium 1413mg59%

Potassium 2246mg64%

Total Carbohydrates 680g227%

Dietary Fiber 35g140%

Sugars 633g

Protein 57g114%

Vitamin A82.8%

Vitamin C12.2%

Calcium131.7%

Iron71%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Mmmmm… These look so carmely and delicious!! They would make an awesome addition to a cookie plate if you’re the type that makes plates of treats for the neighbors during the holidays. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this recipe with us Kara! For more amazingly delicious recipes by her, head over to Creations by Kara!!

Hi! I’m Kara from Creations by Kara, and I’m addicted to creating pretty and yummy things. I love sharing home decor ideas, DIY projects, tasty recipes, and simple tips! I hope that I am inspiring women everywhere to use their creativity to build a better life.

Comments

My MIL and aunt-in-law make turtles and other amazing chocolate treats every Christmastime and I thought it was a big secret and complicated recipe! WHAT. Now that I’m far from home state, I’ll have to make some up myself. 🙂

I melt chocolate pieces & put small rounds on paper, then I add pecans, then caramel sauce then another dollup of chocolate & put in freezer about 20 minutes. I get chocolate melts at craft store. This way there is a chocolate base for pecans & caramel sauce.

I might just be missing it but I don’t see where the 1/2 tsp vanilla is used in the recipe? Is it added into the caramel mixture before the sweetened condensed milk? These look amazing and much easier than I expected!

The recipe for turtles never adds the Carmel to the corn syrup, brown sugar, etc…….
What ? ? ? ? ? ?
So I added Carmel chips anyway with the rest of the ingredients and it is almost to soft and so so so sugary you almost collapse from sugar. They are horrible unless i just can’t cook. But seeing how you screwed the recipe…….. and wasted my money. Send me a reimbursement of $30 please ! ! !

I made these tonight to bring to out of state friends of ours this weekend as a thank you for hosting us! They look (and taste lol) absolutely amazing! They are also my moms favorite candy whose 88th birthday is next week! I feel another batch coming soon!! Thank you for the incredible recipe (I must say I was tempted to cheat and buy Kraft caramels but I wanted them perfect!)

I have made these twice and both times the caramel has been rather soft. When you pick them up it starts slowly drooping down. I put them in a container in the fridge and as long as they were cold you get them out fairly easily. But as soon as they started getting to room temp, they stuck to each other and you had fight to get them out and the pecans broke. Any suggestions? They taste good but want to make these to put in christmas boxes for friends.

The homemade caramel never set, it was still soft. So I boiled the left over Caramel again to 240-250 deg, and I’ll see what happens… The Caramel is delicious. I put the ones I made in frig, and i will ‘ make Chocolate and hopefully they will be perfect.

Mine are currently setting up and look amazing. I don’t have a candy thermometer and I’ve never been good at the ice water method, so I made an educated guess and took the caramel off The STove when I thought it should be done. Its setting up so I think I guessed right.

This recipe made a lot! I got just over 4 dozen. I also did some with PECANs and some with cashews instead of pecans.

I lightly sprinkled coarse salt on top of the chocolate for salted caramel chocolate clusters.
THANK you for The Recipe!

Just fyi, they turned out great with the dark corn SYRUP. The color was slightly darker but the taste and texture was spot on! I took them to a small new years eve party.. all 3 dozen were gone long before midnight. I had a little extra caramel so I put it in a dish, let it set up, cut it into squares and dipped it in chocolate for the people who were not a fan of nuts. They held there shape like a dream. These will be a new holiday tradition at my house. Thanks!

I just made these twice for my husband for valentines day. The first time the caramel ran all over the place so they all stuck together, I am going to call them alligators Lol. But being me I refuse to be out done, the second time I was for sure they were perfect but as they set they were so hard that one actually shattered into pieces that I accidentally drop on the countertop. Help me. This is his favorite candy and I would love to perfect it. I broke the first ones apart and put chocolate on them. He just walked in. Hope he likes them